It has been five years since I finished the HEC Paris MiM, and the question I still get most from prospective applicants is the same one I had to answer for myself before signing the tuition cheque. Was HEC Paris worth it? My honest answer, looking back from Paris where I still work today, is yes. But the qualifier matters. It was worth it because I went in with three specific objectives and the program let me hit all three. If you go in without that clarity, the same program will not feel worth it, even if you graduate from the same building.
Here is how I think about it.
What I actually wanted from HEC Paris
Before applying I wrote down three things. First, I wanted to switch out of computer science and engineering, which is what I had studied at Manipal, into a marketing career. I did not want to wait two or three years to gain work experience and then do an MBA. Second, I wanted to move out of India and start my career in Europe. Moving abroad had been a personal goal since I visited Europe at age fourteen. Third, I wanted a strong master’s experience at a top school, surrounded by high-calibre peers and professors, and the network that comes with it.
Three objectives. Each one had to be true at the end of the program for me to call it a good investment.
The career switch from CS to marketing
The HEC Paris MiM made the switch possible inside three years instead of seven. During the gap year I did two marketing internships, both of which came through the HEC network. The first was unexpected: a six-month role in Los Angeles at a tech startup in the film locations industry. The CEO was an HEC alumnus and the opportunity came through the school’s email list. I was a digital marketing intern, I wore many hats, and that experience changed how I thought about work.
The second internship was at MAC Cosmetics in Paris as a digital marketing and consumer engagement intern. My manager turned out to be another HEC alumna who happened to know my CEO from LA. We figured that out during the interview. That moment was when I stopped doubting the network claim.
By the end of M2, I had two marketing internships and a marketing specialisation. I was no longer a computer science graduate looking to pivot. I was a marketer with two relevant experiences in two countries. If you are thinking about a similar pivot, I broke down the gap year internship hunt separately.
The move to Europe and Paris
I learned French. I made friends in Paris from across the world. After graduation I joined Ubu, a tech startup based in Paris, as content and community lead. That job came through an internship posting on the HEC Paris email list. I wrote to the CEO directly and we built a team from there.
Looking back, every single paid role I have had since starting at HEC has a line back to the school in some way. That is the part of the program that does not show up in the brochure but does show up in your bank account.
The network and life experience
The cost of the MiM is not just euros. It is three years of your early twenties. What you get back is access to a cohort of more than a hundred nationalities, professors who teach at INSEAD and Stanford on the side, and friendships that compound. The friends I made at HEC are now scattered across Singapore, Sao Paulo, Berlin and New York, working at companies I would have struggled to even cold-email five years ago.
I have written more about what I really got out of the MiM at HEC, but the short version is that the experience itself is the asset.
Where it could have gone wrong
This is the bit most worth-it videos skip. I had friends who finished the same program and did not feel the same way. The pattern was almost always the same: they came in without a clear answer to the question “why are you doing this.” When you are unclear, you cannot take advantage of the opportunities that come at you because you do not know which ones to grab.
I wrote a longer piece on my struggles at HEC Paris. The struggles were real. Not knowing French initially hurt my social life and my career options. The competition on campus is intense. The first semester is brutal. The gap year internship hunt is harder than the application to the school itself. None of that disappears because the school name is HEC.
How I would advise someone deciding today
Before you spend forty-nine thousand euros on tuition and three years of your life, write down what you want from the program. Not vague aspirations. Specific outcomes. A career switch into what? A move to which country? A network in which industry? If you cannot answer those, the school will not answer them for you.
If you can answer them and your answers point to a European career in business, then HEC Paris is one of the small handful of schools that lets you actually deliver on those answers. I compared it to its closest local competitor in HEC vs ESSEC and to the US route in France vs US for the MiM.
For me, the math worked. The investment paid back through the network, the geography, and the career switch. Five years out, sitting in Paris doing work I enjoy, that answer has not changed.